Electro- and magneto-optical phenomena in suspensions and colloids

A series of experimental and theoretical methods for the investigation of electro-optics and electroconductivity anisotropy of colloids, suspensions, polyelectrolyte biological solutions and cell suspensions has been carried out. These methods give the possibility of finding practically exhaustive information concerning the permanent and induced dipole moments of the particles, particle electric polarizability in polydisperse systems, conductivity anisotropy, size distribution function and shapes of colloidal particles. Magneto-optical methods of investigation of colloids analogous to the above mentioned electro-optical ones have also been developed. A fundamental new type of permanent magnetism in a wide class of organic substances in the form of a suspension of small crystals in a liquid has been observed. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.